Common set for top-of-the-table clash

Macron Store Southern Combination Football League Division One leaders Common will travel to second-placed Wick tomorrow (Saturday).

Common player-manager Russell Eldridge said: “From our point of view every game’s important because every game we can gain three points.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a must-win game, but we want to keep this unbeaten run going as long as we can and it’s no different whether it’s Wick, Midhurst or whoever.

“Psychologically maybe to people and some teams it may have an impact, but we will focus on ourselves. All we can do is get a maximum of three points to add to the total we’ve got.”

Common have won nine and drawn one of their 10 league games so far, scoring 46 goals and conceding just five for an amazing goal difference of +41.

Wick, who made headlines a few weeks ago for signing ex-Premier League star Marcus Bent, are three points behind Common having won eight, drawn one and lost one of their 10 league outings.

“We don’t really tend to focus on the other teams too much,” continued Eldridge. “It’s more about us, what we do, how we approach the game and implement our skillset. If we do that, the majority of the time the result should take care of itself.”

Wes Tate will return from suspension and Common should be at or close to full strength, giving Eldridge a good selection headache.

Common will also be in action on Tuesday night when they host Premier Division side AFC Uckfield Town in round three of the Peter Bentley Challenge Cup. Kick-off is 7.45pm.

The Commoners will be keen to improve on their 4-1 defeat against the same opponents in the Parafix Sussex Senior Challenge Cup on Tuesday, last week.

Eldridge said: “We want to try and rectify that result and especially the second half performance. That will be in our memory and we will be looking to try and make improvements.

“I kind of expect a bit of a different game from last time. We’re out of three cups now and we don’t want to go out of too many more.”

As brilliant as Common have been in the league, so far this term they’ve been unable to repeat their good record in recent years against higher level opposition in the knockout competitions.

“Sometimes the results haven’t really reflected the games and we want to rectify that,” Eldridge added. “We’ve lost by the odd goal in two of those games and the late goals against Uckfield probably made that result look a bit worse.

“We don’t want people to think we’re a team that can only do it against teams in our league. We know we can more than compete with teams in the league above, and we want to go out there and prove that.”